In the past 10 years, John Ringo has become quite the prolific writer of Military SF, with more than 30 novels published. If his novels were parenthetical asides, he would be to Military SF as I am to this webzine. There are probably two things that he is most known for: collaborating with other authors (such as David Weber, Travis Taylor, Michael Z. Williamson among others), and the Legacy of the Aldenata series (otherwise known as the Posleen War series), the first book of which (and Ringo's debut novel) is A Hymn Before Battle.

The book begins on contemporary Earth (well, Earth in the year 2000, at least) where humans find out that they are not alone in the universe. There is, indeed, a Galactic Federation, and one that is in deep trouble. A new race has appeared, the Posleen, and like a veritable juggernaut (err... they're the juggernaut, bitch?) has been taking over more and more Federation planets. The problem is that effectively all of the races within the Federation are inherently pacifists, and thus not capable of even fighting the Posleen, let alone stopping them. So they turn to the war-like humans, introducing them to the galaxy and all the technology therein in return for, well, the humans being all war-like and taking it to the Posleen. It's human ingenuity versus the massive swarms of centaur-like Posleen. Not, perhaps, the most original of plots, but the book is enjoyable and entertaining anyway.

For better or worse, there are a plethora of characters to follow, with the main character being Mike O'Neal, a former Army specialist who is a big Sci-Fi fan, and thus is pulled back into action early to help design humanity's engines of war (Spoiler Alert: he goes with powered armor). We also have Mueller and Mosovich, two experts at infiltration sent with a team to be the first eyes on the enemy; Sergeant Pappas, a Gunny Sergeant with the job to whip new recruits into shape; and Stewart, a new Private who is/was a gang leader and probably too smart for his own good; among others. Many others. Honestly, I found there to be too many characters. It's not a big problem, by any means, but I found myself preferring certain plot lines over others, although the stories of these characters do continue throughout the series, so it's not a case of having a lot of throwaway characters (for the most part).

So what works? Well, the descriptions of the military operations work quite well (Ringo himself was in the 82nd Airborne). Those, combined with the fast-paced action, lead to quite the engaging read. The story is also, in fact, rather believable -- as much as a story of an alien menace out to take over the galaxy with only humanity standing in the way can be, at least. The meeting of minds discussing how to deal with the newly discovered threat, the emotions surrounding former military members getting called up, the infighting and politics that are always present despite the problems they cause, it's all believable.

Believable enough, actually, that that the latter (the infighting and politics) gets annoying. I was pulled into the story enough that I wanted to see the humans kick some major ass, and the fact that people (and aliens) were playing politics, thus causing less ass-kicking ability, in the face of the most serious (seriousest?) threat the planet has ever seen was really frustrating -- a sign of an engaging story, to be sure.

The book does have a few problems, such as how Mike seems to be a little too good (always seemingly being right, always has the best course of action) -- this isn't necessarily bad, for as previously stated the reader is cheering for the humans to kick some ass -- but it did seem a little unbelievable when compared with how natural other aspects felt, and how there feels to be a bit of an odd split between how technologically advanced the Posleen are (in certain things) and yet how low-level-depending-only-upon-sheer-numbers they are as well.

But overall, this is a great read -- one that is heavier on the action than science fiction jargon. Recommended.

N.B. As an aside, if you are not familiar with John Ringo -- his writing, while generally a lot of fun, can take quite the conservative/anti-liberal bent. In this, his first novel, it is not all that noticeable (this novel was published before 9/11), but in later books it becomes much more apparent. I don't know the extent to which it represents his personal thoughts, or more just his attempt at representing what he thinks his characters think, but the fact that this political slant is evident at all is perhaps a bit jarring. I'm not usually one to notice such things at all, so it is interesting that I do with Ringo's writing. Without making judgements, I felt it worth pointing out as an aspect of Ringo's writing style.

  -- K. Burtt